Israel and the terror group Hamas have officially entered into a ceasefire after the two sides reached agreement on the initial stage of a plan to end the war in Gaza.

The agreement was presented to the Israeli government on Thursday. The security cabinet voted Thursday to approve the deal that was reached after days of negotiation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the adoption of the agreement after the security council vote.

“We fought during these two years to achieve our war aims, and a central one of these war aims is to return the hostages – all of the hostages, the living and the dead – and we’re about to achieve that goal,” Netanyahu said.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner sat alongside the Israeli premier at the announcement.

“I really want to say that this all would not have been possible without the bravery of the IDF,” Kushner stated. “I know a lot of you, probably all of you have family, friends who were in this effort … put your sacrifices on the line to fight for your country and to try to make a difference. I think that made a very, very big difference.”

WATCH: Remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the government meeting for the approval of the hostages release framework, together with President Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, @SteveWitkoff, and with the President’s son-in-law, @JaredKushner. pic.twitter.com/zMALibPcEY

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 9, 2025

Trump is expected to visit Israel in the coming days and address the Knesset, a rare honor for a U.S. president. Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana on Thursday officially invited “The Peace President” to address the Israeli body.

The ceasefire includes the release of the hostages held by Hamas. Trump has said that he expects the 20 living hostages still held by Hamas to be returned to Israel early next week.

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It is unclear how many of the dead hostages, 28 in all, will be returned to Israel. Reports during the negotiations suggested that Israeli officials had concerns that Hamas did not know the locations of the bodies of all of the dead and may not be able to return them.

Israel is expected to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return. The release may include notorious top terrorists as well.

Israeli military forces are expected to pull back from the heart of Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire.

The United States is reportedly sending 200 troops to Israel to oversee implementation of a ceasefire between Jerusalem and the terror group Hamas.

No U.S. troops will be sent into Gaza, according to the Associated Press. The service members will staff a “civil-military coordination center” set up by U.S. Central Command in coordination with partner nations and nongovernmental organizations.

The coordination center will monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli security council voted to approve the first phase of a peace proposal on Thursday, officially enacting a ceasefire that includes the release of hostages held by Hamas and a military pullback from Israel.

The ceasefire comes after Israel and Hamas negotiators hammered out an initial agreement in the Egyptian seaside city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Israeli and Hamas officials met through negotiators. Foreign diplomats from the United States, Turkey, and other countries converged on Sharm el-Sheikh as the two sides drew close to a deal earlier this week.

Those diplomats included Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner, who received personal thanks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the security council vote.

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“We fought during these two years to achieve our war aims, and a central one of these war aims is to return the hostages – all of the hostages, the living and the dead – and we’re about to achieve that goal,” Netanyahu said. “We couldn’t have achieved it without the extraordinary help of President Trump and his team, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.”

The prime minister also thanked the Israel Defense Forces for being one prong of “combined military and diplomatic pressure that isolated Hamas [and] … brought us to this point.”

The structure of the ceasefire is built off of a U.S.-backed proposal announced last month at a joint press conference with Netanyahu. At the time, Trump said the proposal could lay the groundwork for establishing “eternal peace in the Middle East.”

The proposal received backing from a slate of Arab countries. Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt released a joint statement following the proposal’s rollout backing “Trump’s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace.”